Terug rondom 1998, the company I worked for at the time received some funding to create a new e-commerce product. We had the full gamut of business requirements to meet. Dit het vinnig, maklik vir eindgebruikers, flashy, multi-taal, ens.. Hartseer om te sê, Ek het waarskynlik nie as 'n ambisieuse stel van die werk uit te voer, aangesien dié onstuimige dae.
This effort pre-dated Microsoft.NET. Plain vanilla ASP was still somewhat new (of ten minste baie onbekende vir my maatskappy). "Brick and mortar" companies were doomed. Gedoem! This is to say that it was pioneering work. Nie Hadron Collider baanbrekerswerk, maar vir ons in ons klein wêreld, dit was baanbrekerswerk.
We were crazy busy. We were doing mini POC’s almost every day, uitzoeken hoe om die toestand te handhaaf in 'n inherent staatloos medium, uitzoeken multi-taal kwessies, row-level security. We even had create a vocabulary to define basic terms (Ek verkies staat aanhoudende, maar vir een of ander rede, die ongemaklike "State Full" het die dag).
Soos ons is soos 'n besetene die uitvind van hierdie produk, the marketing and sales people were out there trying to sell it. Somehow, they managed to sell it to our nightmare scenario. Even though we were designing and implementing an enterprise solution, we really didn’t expect the first customer to use every last feature we built into the product day zero. This customer needed multi-language, 'n radikaal verskillende koppelvlak van die "standaard" system but with the same business logic. Multi-language was especially hard in this case, omdat ons altyd gefokus op die Spaanse of Franse, maar in hierdie geval, dit was die Chinese (wat is 'n double-byte karakter stel en vereis spesiale hantering van die tegnologie wat ons gebruik).
Fast forward a few months and I’m on a Northwest airlines flight to Beijing. I’ve been so busy preparing for this trip that I have almost no idea what it’s like to go there. I had read a book once about how an American had been in China for several years and had learned the language. One day he was walking the city and asked some people for directions. The conversation went something this:
- Amerikaanse: "Kan jy my vertel hoe om te kry [XX] straat?"
- Chinese: "Ek is jammer, ons praat nie Engels nie ".
- Amerikaanse: "O, goed ek praat Mandaryns." en Hy vra hulle weer in die Sjinees, maar meer duidelik (as die beste wat hy kon).
- Chinese: Baie beleefd, "Ek is jammer, ons praat nie Engels nie ".
The conversation went on like that for bit and the American gave up in frustration. As he was leaving them he overheard one man speaking to the other, "Ek kon sweer hy het gevra vir aanwysings na [XX] straat."
Ek opgetel het 'n paar stukkies van ander China-verwante kwasi-inligting en "nuttige advies":
- 'N Koreaanse mede-gewerk het aan my gesê dat die wat ek nodig het om versigtig te wees van die Chinese, want "hulle sal probeer om my dronk te kry en neem voordeel van jou" in die sin van die druk van my in 'n swak sakebesluite.
- Ons was nie toegelaat om motors te ry (was daar 'n verwarring oor of dit was 'n gewoonte, 'n wetlike vereiste is of net die kliënt se heerskappy).
- Daar is spesiale reëls vir die wat deur die doeane.
- Ons was nie toegelaat om Amerikaanse geld te gebruik vir enige iets.
- You’re not supposed to leave tips. It’s insulting if you do.
En uiteindelik, Ek het relatief vars herinneringe Tiananmen slagting. When I was at college, I remember seeing real-time Usenet postings as the world looked on in horror.
In kort, I was very nervous. I wasn’t just normal-nervous in the sense that I was delivering a solution that was orders of magnitude more complicated than anything I had ever done before. I was also worried about accidentally breaking a rule that could get me in trouble.
Ek is op hierdie 14 uur vlug en al was dit besigheid klas, 14 uur is 'n verdomde lang tyd. Daar is net soveel maniere om jouself te vermaak deur te lees, watching movies or playing with the magnetized cutlery. Even a really good book is hard to read for several hours straight.
Uiteindelik, Ek het begin om die verpakkingsmateriaal te lees op 'n stuk sagteware, was ek die hand wat saam met my aan die kliënt, Netscape’s web server. I’m reading the hardware/software requirements, die bemarking blurbs, op soek na die mooi prentjie en skielik, Ek toespits op die reus "nie vir UITVOER" waarskuwing, iets oor 128 bit encryption. I stuffed the box back into my carry bag, waarskuwing gesig af (asof dit sou gehelp het) en probeer visioene van te hou Midnight Express out of my head.
As ons terugkyk op dit nou, Sou ek bekommerd gewees het, indien enigsins, wanneer ek het die VSA, not when I was entering China 🙂 Nothing untoward happened and I still consider that to be the best and most memorable business trip I’ve had the pleasure of making.
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